Nail-holding attachment for hammers.



No. 698,631. v Patented Apr. 29, I902.

E. L. CARLISLE.

NAIL HOLDING ATTACHMENT FOR HAMMERS.

(A'pplibation filed Aug. 5, 1901.)

(No Model.)

Zjra I 12/3/9 47 60.. PHOTO-H1040 wasumc'ron n c UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EZRA L. CARLISLE, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA.

NAIL-HOLDING ATTACHMENT FOR HAMMERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 698,631, dated April 29, 1902.

Application filed gust 5, 1901. Serial No- 70,S63- (No modelJ To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EZRA L. CARLIsLn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Minneapolis, in the county of Hennepin and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Nail-Holding Attachments for Hammers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention has for its object to provide an improved nail-holder attachment for hammers; and to this end it consists of the novel devices and combinations of devices hereinafter described, and defined in the claims.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

Figure l is aside elevation showing an ordinary hammer with one of my improved nailholding devices applied thereto, some parts being broken away; and Fig. 2 is a plan view of the said hammer, showing a nail held by my improved nail-holder device, some parts of the hammer being broken away.

The numeral 1 indicates the head of the hammer, which is shown as a claw-hammer and is provided with a tapered socket 2, into which the handle 3 is driven in the ordinary way.

' The character .2 indicates an ordinary wire nail.

The attachment or nail-holding device is afforded by a flat strip of spring sheet metal a, the end of which is bent upon itself and turned backward upon the body portion, so that it lies close to the same. This backturned end is notched or bifurcated, so as to aiford diverging spring-prongs b, which are adapted to hold the head of the nail. The projecting endof the body-piece a is provided with suitable screw-holes, through which screws 0 are passed and screwed into the handle 3 to detachably but rigidly secure the device on the hammer; The device is shown as applied to the side of the hammer,

with its inner end bent to closely engage the tapered surface of the socket 2; but it is of course evident that the said device may be applied either in line with the claws of the hammer or at any other suitable point.

The nail is held by slipping the head thereof between the spring-prongs b and the body o,with the stem of the nail projecting through the crotch formed between the said prongs. The head of the nail is then firmly held flatwise against the body-strip a. This body portion a, therefore affords a rigid drivingsurface for driving the nail or starting the same into a beam or piece of wood located overhead and out of reach of the workman. It therefore follows that this device might be applied to any portion of the handle of a hammer, hatchet, or other tool. In fact, the

device would work even if applied to a plain handle or piece of wood, inasmuch as the nail-head is firmly held at both sides and top and bottom by the metal parts of the nailholding device. I

What I claim, and desire to secure by Let ters Patent of the United States, is as follows:

.. 1. A nail-holding attachment comprising the flat body a with backturned spring-prongs EZRA L. CARLISLE.

Witnesses:

ELIZABETH KELIHER, F. D. MERCHANT. 

